This update is all about plugins. The functions of the old PluginRegistry plugin have now been merged into the core application, along with several other improvements.
First, the "plugins" and "(name).xml" files are both deprecated (meaning they still work for backward compatibility, but you should stop using them). They are replaced by a single file called "extensions.xml". I'll write up detailed documentation on it in the future, but the format is mostly identical to the old "(name).xml" file, except that the outer tag is <extension> rather than <script>, and the name and version are specified by attributes on that tag, not by child tags:
In addition, you can have the following new tags inside it:
<plugin class="name"/>
where name is the name of the plugin class to instantiate and register (equivalent to a line in the old "plugins" file). There also are options for creating proxies, which I'll describe in the full documentation.
<category class="name"/>
where name is the name of a class or interface that defines a new category of plugins. Any plugin which is an instance of the specified class will be registered as a member of that category.
<import name="name"/>
where name is the name of another plugin (as specified in its <extension> tag). That plugin's classes become visible to this plugin.
defines a resource that can be accessed by this or other plugins. "type" describes what type of resource this is, "id" is an id that can be used to refer to it, "name" is the fully qualified name of the file in the plugin's jar that it refers to, and locale is an optional attribute specifying the locale of the resource.
Plugins and resources are now accessed from the PluginRegistry class rather than ModellingApp (though the old methods there are still supported for backward compatibility). See the javadocs in that class for lots more details and better explanations than the ones above.
Another new feature is that scripts can now refer to classes defined by plugins, so reflection is no longer needed in scripts. You don't need to do anything special to do this: just refer to classes by name.
The Translate class can now be used by plugins to localize their own text. This works exactly as I described in a recent post, so see that for details. It's also described by the javadocs in the Translate class.
Another import change is that I've added two new messages to the Plugin interface: OBJECT_WINDOW_CREATED and OBJECT_WINDOW_CLOSING. This allows plugins to add new features to object editing windows.
Finally, I've upgraded to Buoy 1.8.
Note that the Help plugin does not work in this release. That's because it uses the old PluginRegistry plugin which no longer exists, so it will need to be updated to use the new PluginRegistry class. I intend for it to be back in time for the beta. Nik, can you take care of that?
Give it a try and tell me what you think!
Peter
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Peter, this looks like a great release from programmers view.
And thus it´ll be sure a great step for AoI into the future.
From a pure users view: Will we see things like ref. image planes in the beta?
I thought the better handling (speed) of images in the uv - editor window was a first step towards this. Or ist that not on the 2.5.x list? (I used to think so).
Beside that I´m still amazed and impressed about the activities from devs here.
I can imagine that this will expand due to new possibilities from 2.5.x on.
Harald
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> Will we see things like ref. image planes in the beta?
Until a release is finished, I never know for sure what will be in it. Next on my list is looking at the UI changes Francois sent me a few weeks ago. After that? Who knows!
If you're interested in seeing improvements to reference images, here's something that would help: could you point me to some programs I could look at that you think implement them especially well?
Peter
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I need to say that I did work with wings3d and its Rips - but not with Anim8or.
I do have worked with trueSpace and the RIP setup is fairly easy:
An plane is mapped with an image (as in AoI) and you can set it on a layer as visible but not editable - this is nearly the same with wings3d.
But what makes it hard is that transparent edit is a must then. I suggest to show the points (Controlmesh or just control points) over the transparent mesh. The hard thing to do then is to show the plane with the image not as a transparent plane.
Harald
PS: If it helps I can record some Flash or moves how to setup an refernce image in wings or trueSpace.
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This is a very important feature for modelling. Having used the current implementation, I must confess it's really too basic, so implementation of a better reference image scheme has a high priority IMO.
This being said, here are the two requirements an implementation would have to meet (unless I missed something):
-image planes can be placed anywhere and resizable
-image planes can be seen as regular planes in any orientation view so as to place vertices/edges etc. with respect to more than one image reference at once (e.g. along a diagonal looking at both reference planes. In other words you get a sensation of 'depth'). There was once a tutorial with Wings3D showing this powerful feature but I can't find it any more. A glimpse of what it is like can be seen here : http://www.cgchat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7578
I've thought of a possible implementation some times ago. Here is what I came out with. Have an image plane tool that will add reference image planes objects much like you add polygons in a scene. The tool would indeed add a reference image object which would be seen only in interactive mode (returns a null rendering mesh when rendering). The planes would be textured using image mapped textures. Reference planes would be textured on both sides, the back texture begin a mirror of the front texture. Texture can be made transparent so the reference image does not hide the scene. Editing a reference plane would propose the user a texturing parameters dialog tailored to the need rather than the general purpose texturing dialog so as to set the texture scale as approriate and automatically set the right back face texturing.
Several issues remain which have to be dealt with:
-Textured display is not detailed enough in interactive mode, showing only a mean color.
-Reference planes must render in textured mode whatever the display mode chosen by user. This needs to be dealt with at AoI level maybe, for example adding a getPreferredDisplayMode() to Object3D so that objects can override user settings.
-References planes must be added to MeshEditorWindows as well. This may involve more work, yet this is a very important feature for mesh modelling.
Francois
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I'm trying to write a Texture Bakery plugin which depends on the PolyMesh plugin, and when I have
<import name="PolyMesh"/>
in my plugin's extensions.xml, the Texture Bakery option doesn't appear in the Tools menu like it's supposed to, and there is no explanation as to why this is so in the log. When I take out the import line, the menu item appears, but then I get a NoClassDefFoundError when I invoke it, since Texture Bakery can no longer see PolyMesh.
I think this is occurring because PolyMesh doesn't have an extensions.xml file, so do you think it would be possible to add support for importing "legacy" plugins whose names are defined in the old way?
Thanks!
-Ed
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Oh, also, it seems that tool plugins are loaded in a completely random order, as their order on the Tools menu changes from run to run of AoI. Is there any way of controlling the order short of just alphabetizing the menu?
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> I think this is occurring because PolyMesh doesn't have an extensions.xml file
That's correct - only "new style" plugins can be imported. I don't think that's a serious limitation, because I expect that most plugins you'd want to import will be converted in the very near future.
> and there is no explanation as to why this is so in the log.
Are you sure? You ought to see the following message in the log:
*** The following plugins were not loaded because their imports could not be resolved:
> Is there any way of controlling the order short of just alphabetizing the menu?
No good way that I can think of. Shall I alphabetize it?
Peter
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> > Is there any way of controlling the order short of just alphabetizing the menu?
> No good way that I can think of. Shall I alphabetize it?
Is there a problem being caused by the random order of the plugin loading? (I haven't looked at the code yet - I am expecting to get to HelpPlugin on Thursday.)
If there are no problems being caused, why force any order at all? If there are problems, then I would suggest that ordering the loading of plugins is not the correct way to fix the problems.
Cheers!
Nik
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OK, guess I'll just wait for Francois to get around to updating PolyMesh... and if he doesn't soon, it seems like a trivial enough task that anyone could pick up! (Yeah, even me ;-)
As for alphabetizing plugins on the Tools menu - yeah, I would appreciate that; if things aren't where I expect, it can be a bit disconcerting trying to find them again every time! So go ahead and do it, if nobody else objects, that is...
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I don't know when I'll update PME for 2.5, but it will be ready at the latest for 2.5 final. I think I'll wait till Peter finalizes the UI change I propose since plugins can take advantage of that too.
Francois.
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Just a picture I can add from TS - showing for what I use more than 1 imageplane and that shows also why transparent editing is mandatory in that case.
I've uploaded two updated plugins for AOI 2.5. I would appreciate verification from anyone running AOI 2.5ea2 that the new plugins work for them without problems.
The plugins are:
1. HelpPlugin
- this is primarily a 2.5 compatibility release
2. SPManager
- this has support for some newer features in AOI 2.5
- some minor visual improvements to explain the various icons
- a tidy-up in the pull-down that selects the detail display
- a tidy-up of the controls for setting the filters
(this was actually present in the SPManager shipped with 2.5ea2, but I don't think anyone mentioned it at the time)
You can download both using SPManager:
1. HelpPlugin was not shipped with 2.5ea2, so it will be under the 'Install' tab.
2. SPManager was shipped with 2.5ea2, and so will be under the 'Update' tab.
For those among us who install manually, the only files different from AOI 2.4 are HelpPlugin.jar and SPManager.jar. (I hope). You should only need to download these from the repository and copy them into your Plugins folder.
Cheers!
Nik.
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Tsssst, Harald I bet you're still on the Test Repository. Use Setup to come back to the stable one.
Nik: I think it's best to remove old versions in test repository so people can realize the new version they want to download isn't there and start to wonder why...
Francois.
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I can't see how an out-of-date SF server could cause SPManager to see an old version of the file, however, because the files are tagged with the version number, so an out-of-date server would simply show nothing available.
Just to clarify my previous post:
If you are downloading manually, you need to ensure you get the correct version of the file.
For HelpPlugin, that is: HelpPlugin-2_5.jar
and for SPManager, that is: SPManager-2_5.jar
Let me know how you get on.
Three things will help me diagnose what's happening on your pachine:
1. a screenshot similar to mine, showing what SPManager is seeing
2. output from the log (SPManager displays a summary of the file comparison
3. the URL that SPManager is using to scan the plugin dir. It is displayed at the bottom of the SPManager window. You need to be fairly quick, so here's a tip: write the right-most component first, then work from right-to-left. :o)
Cheers!
Nik
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I fully agree with you. I had completely forgotten that there were still old versions in Test.
It did cross my mind to ask Harald if he were using the regular repository, but it was late when I wrote my post, and I forgot...
Ok, I'll remove them now..
... Schon gemacht...
Cheers!
Nik
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The help plugin works - even some mistakes with the german version seemed to be gone (like no pictures to see and such)
- the internal ICQ works fine. And the SPM icons are looking good, too!
Well done
Harald
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I'm having trouble rendering a scattering scene in 2.5ea2 that renders fine in 2.41. After calculating volume photons is done and rendering begins it freezes with high CPU usage. The scene I'm using is at http://icrashedtheinternet.com/scatteringTestScene4.aoi and the error log shows this:
Exception in thread "Raytracer main thread" java.lang.NullPointerException
at artofillusion.raytracer.Raytracer$6.execute(Raytracer.java:1100)
at artofillusion.util.ThreadManager.run(ThreadManager.java:143)
at artofillusion.raytracer.Raytracer.run(Raytracer.java:1113)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
Thanks for the earily release, though! It's great to see that you are willing to overhaul important pieces of AoI to make it better :)
-John
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The second early access release of 2.5 is now available:
http://www.artofillusion.org/aoi25ea2.zip
http://www.artofillusion.org/aoisrc25ea2.zip
This update is all about plugins. The functions of the old PluginRegistry plugin have now been merged into the core application, along with several other improvements.
First, the "plugins" and "(name).xml" files are both deprecated (meaning they still work for backward compatibility, but you should stop using them). They are replaced by a single file called "extensions.xml". I'll write up detailed documentation on it in the future, but the format is mostly identical to the old "(name).xml" file, except that the outer tag is <extension> rather than <script>, and the name and version are specified by attributes on that tag, not by child tags:
<extension name="Renderers" version="2.5">
...
</extension>
In addition, you can have the following new tags inside it:
<plugin class="name"/>
where name is the name of the plugin class to instantiate and register (equivalent to a line in the old "plugins" file). There also are options for creating proxies, which I'll describe in the full documentation.
<category class="name"/>
where name is the name of a class or interface that defines a new category of plugins. Any plugin which is an instance of the specified class will be registered as a member of that category.
<import name="name"/>
where name is the name of another plugin (as specified in its <extension> tag). That plugin's classes become visible to this plugin.
<resource type="..." id="..." name="..." locale="..."/>
defines a resource that can be accessed by this or other plugins. "type" describes what type of resource this is, "id" is an id that can be used to refer to it, "name" is the fully qualified name of the file in the plugin's jar that it refers to, and locale is an optional attribute specifying the locale of the resource.
Plugins and resources are now accessed from the PluginRegistry class rather than ModellingApp (though the old methods there are still supported for backward compatibility). See the javadocs in that class for lots more details and better explanations than the ones above.
Another new feature is that scripts can now refer to classes defined by plugins, so reflection is no longer needed in scripts. You don't need to do anything special to do this: just refer to classes by name.
The Translate class can now be used by plugins to localize their own text. This works exactly as I described in a recent post, so see that for details. It's also described by the javadocs in the Translate class.
Another import change is that I've added two new messages to the Plugin interface: OBJECT_WINDOW_CREATED and OBJECT_WINDOW_CLOSING. This allows plugins to add new features to object editing windows.
Finally, I've upgraded to Buoy 1.8.
Note that the Help plugin does not work in this release. That's because it uses the old PluginRegistry plugin which no longer exists, so it will need to be updated to use the new PluginRegistry class. I intend for it to be back in time for the beta. Nik, can you take care of that?
Give it a try and tell me what you think!
Peter
Peter, this looks like a great release from programmers view.
And thus it´ll be sure a great step for AoI into the future.
From a pure users view: Will we see things like ref. image planes in the beta?
I thought the better handling (speed) of images in the uv - editor window was a first step towards this. Or ist that not on the 2.5.x list? (I used to think so).
Beside that I´m still amazed and impressed about the activities from devs here.
I can imagine that this will expand due to new possibilities from 2.5.x on.
Harald
Peter,
This is awesome!
I have more plugins than just HelpPlugin to update for 2.5, so I'd better get a wriggle-on. :o)
(My apologies folks for not having get HelpPlugin done in time, but I got distracted by other development...)
Cheers!
Nik
PS: If this post ends up being a duplicate of an immediately prior on, I apologise, but the earlier one just seemed to vanish...
> Peter, this looks like a great release from programmers view.
> And thus it´ll be sure a great step for AoI into the future.
My thoughts exactly.
> (My apologies folks for not having get HelpPlugin done in time, but I got distracted by other development...)
Other development, exactly... I think a blind eye can be turned, and you spared 10 lashings with the cat-o'-nine-tails.
Richard
> Will we see things like ref. image planes in the beta?
Until a release is finished, I never know for sure what will be in it. Next on my list is looking at the UI changes Francois sent me a few weeks ago. After that? Who knows!
If you're interested in seeing improvements to reference images, here's something that would help: could you point me to some programs I could look at that you think implement them especially well?
Peter
Hello Peter - of course I can.
One is Anim8or:
http://www.anim8or.com/main/index.html
here is a tut about rip setup for it:
http://members.lycos.nl/jonim8or/refpic_tut1.html
And the other is wings3d.
http://www.wings3d.com/
I need to say that I did work with wings3d and its Rips - but not with Anim8or.
I do have worked with trueSpace and the RIP setup is fairly easy:
An plane is mapped with an image (as in AoI) and you can set it on a layer as visible but not editable - this is nearly the same with wings3d.
But what makes it hard is that transparent edit is a must then. I suggest to show the points (Controlmesh or just control points) over the transparent mesh. The hard thing to do then is to show the plane with the image not as a transparent plane.
Harald
PS: If it helps I can record some Flash or moves how to setup an refernce image in wings or trueSpace.
This is a very important feature for modelling. Having used the current implementation, I must confess it's really too basic, so implementation of a better reference image scheme has a high priority IMO.
This being said, here are the two requirements an implementation would have to meet (unless I missed something):
-image planes can be placed anywhere and resizable
-image planes can be seen as regular planes in any orientation view so as to place vertices/edges etc. with respect to more than one image reference at once (e.g. along a diagonal looking at both reference planes. In other words you get a sensation of 'depth'). There was once a tutorial with Wings3D showing this powerful feature but I can't find it any more. A glimpse of what it is like can be seen here : http://www.cgchat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7578
I've thought of a possible implementation some times ago. Here is what I came out with. Have an image plane tool that will add reference image planes objects much like you add polygons in a scene. The tool would indeed add a reference image object which would be seen only in interactive mode (returns a null rendering mesh when rendering). The planes would be textured using image mapped textures. Reference planes would be textured on both sides, the back texture begin a mirror of the front texture. Texture can be made transparent so the reference image does not hide the scene. Editing a reference plane would propose the user a texturing parameters dialog tailored to the need rather than the general purpose texturing dialog so as to set the texture scale as approriate and automatically set the right back face texturing.
Several issues remain which have to be dealt with:
-Textured display is not detailed enough in interactive mode, showing only a mean color.
-Reference planes must render in textured mode whatever the display mode chosen by user. This needs to be dealt with at AoI level maybe, for example adding a getPreferredDisplayMode() to Object3D so that objects can override user settings.
-References planes must be added to MeshEditorWindows as well. This may involve more work, yet this is a very important feature for mesh modelling.
Francois
I'm trying to write a Texture Bakery plugin which depends on the PolyMesh plugin, and when I have
<import name="PolyMesh"/>
in my plugin's extensions.xml, the Texture Bakery option doesn't appear in the Tools menu like it's supposed to, and there is no explanation as to why this is so in the log. When I take out the import line, the menu item appears, but then I get a NoClassDefFoundError when I invoke it, since Texture Bakery can no longer see PolyMesh.
I think this is occurring because PolyMesh doesn't have an extensions.xml file, so do you think it would be possible to add support for importing "legacy" plugins whose names are defined in the old way?
Thanks!
-Ed
Oh, also, it seems that tool plugins are loaded in a completely random order, as their order on the Tools menu changes from run to run of AoI. Is there any way of controlling the order short of just alphabetizing the menu?
> I think this is occurring because PolyMesh doesn't have an extensions.xml file
That's correct - only "new style" plugins can be imported. I don't think that's a serious limitation, because I expect that most plugins you'd want to import will be converted in the very near future.
> and there is no explanation as to why this is so in the log.
Are you sure? You ought to see the following message in the log:
*** The following plugins were not loaded because their imports could not be resolved:
> Is there any way of controlling the order short of just alphabetizing the menu?
No good way that I can think of. Shall I alphabetize it?
Peter
> > Is there any way of controlling the order short of just alphabetizing the menu?
> No good way that I can think of. Shall I alphabetize it?
Is there a problem being caused by the random order of the plugin loading? (I haven't looked at the code yet - I am expecting to get to HelpPlugin on Thursday.)
If there are no problems being caused, why force any order at all? If there are problems, then I would suggest that ordering the loading of plugins is not the correct way to fix the problems.
Cheers!
Nik
oops - ok, we're talking about ordering the menu. Sorry, I was thinking about the temporal order of loading.
Apologies.
Cheers!
Nik
OK, guess I'll just wait for Francois to get around to updating PolyMesh... and if he doesn't soon, it seems like a trivial enough task that anyone could pick up! (Yeah, even me ;-)
As for alphabetizing plugins on the Tools menu - yeah, I would appreciate that; if things aren't where I expect, it can be a bit disconcerting trying to find them again every time! So go ahead and do it, if nobody else objects, that is...
I don't know when I'll update PME for 2.5, but it will be ready at the latest for 2.5 final. I think I'll wait till Peter finalizes the UI change I propose since plugins can take advantage of that too.
Francois.
UI change you propose? Ooh, what's that?
>UI change you propose? Ooh, what's that?
Skinning :-)
Just a picture I can add from TS - showing for what I use more than 1 imageplane and that shows also why transparent editing is mandatory in that case.
http://freenet-homepage.de/vidiot/Image_planes.jpg
Harald
Ok,
I've uploaded two updated plugins for AOI 2.5. I would appreciate verification from anyone running AOI 2.5ea2 that the new plugins work for them without problems.
The plugins are:
1. HelpPlugin
- this is primarily a 2.5 compatibility release
2. SPManager
- this has support for some newer features in AOI 2.5
- some minor visual improvements to explain the various icons
- a tidy-up in the pull-down that selects the detail display
- a tidy-up of the controls for setting the filters
(this was actually present in the SPManager shipped with 2.5ea2, but I don't think anyone mentioned it at the time)
You can download both using SPManager:
1. HelpPlugin was not shipped with 2.5ea2, so it will be under the 'Install' tab.
2. SPManager was shipped with 2.5ea2, and so will be under the 'Update' tab.
For those among us who install manually, the only files different from AOI 2.4 are HelpPlugin.jar and SPManager.jar. (I hope). You should only need to download these from the repository and copy them into your Plugins folder.
Cheers!
Nik.
Hello Nik,
I tried to dl via SPM this was the result:
http://freenet-homepage.de/vidiot/Fehler.gif
I found out the text say it´s from last september:
HelpPlugin mit Nik Trevallyn-Jones, v0.09b1 September 12, 2006 , Größe: 20kb (Zusaätzliche Dateien: jhelpaction.jar 1kb,jhall.jar 1kb,pircbot.jar 1kb,AOIHelp.zip 1kb)
Maybe I picked up an old one?
HTH
Harald
Tsssst, Harald I bet you're still on the Test Repository. Use Setup to come back to the stable one.
Nik: I think it's best to remove old versions in test repository so people can realize the new version they want to download isn't there and start to wonder why...
Francois.
Hi Harald,
Yes, you have definitely picked up an old one.
Ok, I'm officially puzzled... Here is a screenshot of what I see using SPManager in AOI 2.5ea2:
http://nik.homelinux.net/files/spmanager.png
I can't see how an out-of-date SF server could cause SPManager to see an old version of the file, however, because the files are tagged with the version number, so an out-of-date server would simply show nothing available.
Just to clarify my previous post:
If you are downloading manually, you need to ensure you get the correct version of the file.
For HelpPlugin, that is: HelpPlugin-2_5.jar
and for SPManager, that is: SPManager-2_5.jar
Let me know how you get on.
Three things will help me diagnose what's happening on your pachine:
1. a screenshot similar to mine, showing what SPManager is seeing
2. output from the log (SPManager displays a summary of the file comparison
3. the URL that SPManager is using to scan the plugin dir. It is displayed at the bottom of the SPManager window. You need to be fairly quick, so here's a tip: write the right-most component first, then work from right-to-left. :o)
Cheers!
Nik
Francois,
I fully agree with you. I had completely forgotten that there were still old versions in Test.
It did cross my mind to ask Harald if he were using the regular repository, but it was late when I wrote my post, and I forgot...
Ok, I'll remove them now..
... Schon gemacht...
Cheers!
Nik
Hi Nik,
it works - after switching from Testrep. to... ;)
The help plugin works - even some mistakes with the german version seemed to be gone (like no pictures to see and such)
- the internal ICQ works fine. And the SPM icons are looking good, too!
Well done
Harald
Since I can´t edit former postings, - here´s another screenshot of AoI and Hexagon with Reference image pictures.
Note that - even if they are looking good in theses AoI screenshots - it´s not as much fun to work with them ...
http://freenet-homepage.de/vidiot/JAsetup.jpg
Harald
I'm having trouble rendering a scattering scene in 2.5ea2 that renders fine in 2.41. After calculating volume photons is done and rendering begins it freezes with high CPU usage. The scene I'm using is at http://icrashedtheinternet.com/scatteringTestScene4.aoi and the error log shows this:
Exception in thread "Raytracer main thread" java.lang.NullPointerException
at artofillusion.raytracer.Raytracer$6.execute(Raytracer.java:1100)
at artofillusion.util.ThreadManager.run(ThreadManager.java:143)
at artofillusion.raytracer.Raytracer.run(Raytracer.java:1113)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
Thanks for the earily release, though! It's great to see that you are willing to overhaul important pieces of AoI to make it better :)
-John